Night Owl 6/Night Owl's Shareware - PDSI-006 - Night Owl Corp (1990).iso/025a/lg108a.zip/106-READ.ME

Text File | 1992-01-13 | 14KB | 261 lines

Date: 01-12-92
Time: 10:15 am

from the desk of Lonnie J. Rolland

From the folks who brought you Logger3, (L3) that pop up and non pop up
information collector, comes LoggerG (LG) where the 'G' stands for
generic (or make it what you want) field labels.

LG (a.k.a. plain old logger) has a ascii text file which is read when
the executable is ran. The contents of the small text file configures
the mode of operation you will be running and the names of the
different field labels to a record.

The configuration file contains 16 lines.

Line (1) is a title that will sit top center as part of the logger's
main screen.  Line (2) can hold an 'M' or a 'C' along with an 'N' and
a 'D'.  'M' is for forcing mono display mode.  'C' is for forcing color
display mode.  'N' is for turning on the network locks for multi user or
group usage mode.  And finally 'D' is for turning on bbs doorway mode. You
can leave line 2 blank or have up to 3 letters (like 'CND' for instance).
Line (3) tells the program the sub-directory where the bbs 'door.sys'
file sits, and is valid only if running in doorway mode.   Lines (4)
through (16) are for the labels to the fields on the upper part of a
record.

The labels on the upper part of a record typically ask for name, address
and phone number stuff.  You can choose the field names that will appear
there.  But the names you choose DO have a word length constraint.  The
working example supplied with LG / LGNP might suit your particular needs.
Here is its layout below:


|------------------------- MY NICE LITTLE Logger ------------------------------|
| Legal Name: ........................................  Today's Date: ........ |
| Contact: ................................................................... |
| Company: ................................................................... |
| Address: ................................................................... |
| City/State: ........................  Country: .............  Zip: ......... |
| Work Ph: ................  Home Ph: ...............  Fax Ph: ............... |
| Action: .................................................................... |
| Resolution: ................................................................ |
|---------------------------< MEMO FIELD >-------------------------------------|
|                                                                              |


Look at the first line in the record field.  The first field currently has
'Legal Name: ' as a label, which is a twelve character string.  The number
twelve is important. You can put in any twelve ( or less ) character string
you wish in its place.  If you supply it with a string which is bigger,
it'll only use the first twelve characters.  Now lets break away from these
details and back up a moment.


LoggerG is fully functional, non-crippled information logging program.
It can be used to track clients or cases in a legal office.  It could
track customers in a sales office.  You could use it to post items for
sale or trade.  You could post people and their occupations where the
posted are looking for gainful employment.  In a material control
office, it could keep track of vendors and their promises.  In a
tech support group, you could track customer problems or loaned out
equipment.  The list could go on and on...

It uses a DBase III+ compatable .dbf and .dbt

*********************************************************************
***                    ATTENTION USERS                            ***
*** LG can run on a network with full record/file locking,        ***
*** therefore if and when you do so you MUST run dos's SHARE      ***
*** program first before the logger or it'll keep popping up      ***
*** error messages at you and not save your input.                ***
***                                                               ***
*** The locking is done with netbios calls. Therefore you have    ***
*** to be running DOS version 3.1 or later.                       ***
***                                                               ***
*** It'll still work fine if you don't have a network too.        ***
***                                                               ***
*** By default logger doesn't need share and will NOT do locking. ***
*** You turn that mode of operation 'ON' by including a 'N' in    ***
*** the second line of the config file.                           ***
*********************************************************************


Install and remove the program from your hard disk with the batch
files MAKE_LG and REMO_LG. The make batch file will create a
subdirectory and put an empty data file set in it.

To use the program, envoke it with the batch file called LOGGER. It will
change directory, setup an environment variable, and then envoke logger.
Logger auto-detects whether its running on a mono or color system.
If the auto-detect is mis-interpretting your hardware, you can force
color mode by putting a 'C' in line 2 of the config file, or force mono
mode by putting a 'M' there.

The logger program, when envoked, needs about 118k bytes of ram.
The file 'LG.EXE' is the tsr version of the program. It's a nice, small
6.5KB pop up tsr that uses swapping technology. The hot key to pop it
up is "CTRL" + "ALT" + "A". Note you have to hold all 3 keys down at the
same time.  The tsr version of logger does not have a doorway mode.
The tsr can un-load itself.  By pressing 'R' at the main menu, logger
will release its (small) captive ram and un-hook itself from the system
interupts.  The file 'LGNP.EXE' is the non resident ( pass through )
version of the program. Both programs look and function exactly alike.
The file 'L3GBLK.ZIP' is a set of empty .dbf/.dbt files. The file
'L3GABC.ZIP' is a set of test data .dbf/.dbt's files.

Logger now has a delete function.  While in the 'search' or 'browse'
mode, press the 'D' key.  If you are the owner of the record, you may
mark it deleted. In multi-user and doorway mode, there can be many
different people adding records.  In doorway mode the program reads
the 'door.sys' file and generates a record 'key'.  In multi-user mode,
each person must set a dos environment variable called 'LGKEY' to a
made up password.  What LGKEY is set to becomes the record password.
Then nobody else gets to mess with your records.

A note about 'Orphaned Memos'.
They will happen within the .dbt file when you: 1) delete and pack out
the .dbf that points to the memo, 2) edit an existing memo and make it grow
larger in size than it originally was (512 to 1024, 1024 to 1536...etc).

Please find the program called 'LG6PACK.EXE'. It's purpose is to pack out
the 'Orphaned Memos'. It walks down through the .dbf and rebuilds the .dbt
file as it goes. It does not use network locks, ergo pack your data local.


The structure for L3GV.DBF is:
Field  Field Name  Type       Width    Dec       (label)    (length)
    1  FN01        Character     40           { Legal Name    /12 }
    2  FN02        Character     40           { Password      /10 }
    3  FN03        Character     67           { contact       /9  }
    4  FN04        Character     67           { company       /9  }
    5  FN05        Character     67           { address       /9  }
    6  FN06        Character     24           { city/state    /12 }
    7  FN07        Character     13           { country       /9  }
    8  FN08        Character      9           { zip           /5  }
    9  FN09        Character     16           { work ph       /9  }
   10  FN10        Character     15           { home ph       /9  }
   11  FN11        Character     15           { fax  ph       /8  }
   12  FN12        Character     68           { action        /8  }
   13  FN13        Character     64           { resolution    /12 }
   14  FN14        Character      8           { today's date  /14 }
   15  MEMOFLD     Memo          10
** Total **                     524

The previous Logger had timer, find, browse, choose and did time
accumulation and date stamping.  This current version of logger has
only add, search, browse, and date stamping.  It has less function-
ality and complexity.

Logger will now also send the currently displayed record to the
printer too. If you are within the find or browse function, you
press the (O) key to send the record information 'out' to the printer.
If you are within the edit function, (and not in the memo pad area)
you press the (ctrl-O) key instead.  This will not work in doorway
mode (of course).

Logger will produce an ascii output file too.  From the main program
prompt, press the (T) key.  It will ask you from which record to
begin with.  Then it will walk from that record to the end and transfer
the data to an ascii file (with labels) called 'DATABASE.DOC'.

The add (A) command starts an entry. The search (S) command is nice.
It works on fields 1, 12, 3, 4 of the record. Which for our example
would be: 1) legal name 2) action 3) contact and 4) company.
The search order is from the last record to the first record. It will
find embedded strings anywhere within the target string and is case
insensitive. The browse (B) command uses the keypad keys. It uses the
up, down, PgUp, PgDn, home, and end key.  If numlock is on, it will use
the 7, 8, 9, 1, 2, 3's keys also.  Browse will remember where
you were browsing at last.

You may start an addition then escape out and suspend the entry to do
a browse, or find function (or go to dos for the tsr version).
Then return back to your started entry. If you elect to edit a
record from the find or browse mode, you do so by pressing 'enter' to
select a record. When you have finish your editing, logger will ask
you if you want to (maintainence mode) re-write the record back to
where it came from OR (add mode) append the record as a new one to
the end of the DBF.

The memo pad portion saves only what it needs to save, from a 512
byte minimum, to a 4096 byte maximum size. The full screen editor
understands wordstar style key strokes and it does automatic
word-wrap at the end of lines also!


Logger was written by me with toolboxes from Max Software Consultants
at 301/828-5935 for handling the dbase structures and Turbo Power at
408/438-8608 for tsr/swapping/string/memo handling.

Logger does take advantage of an environment variable called NETDRIVE.
The netdrive variable gets plugged into the data file manipulation
procedures.  You HAVE TO tell logger where the data is sitting.


At where I work, we run Artisoft's Lantastic AI Netbios/NOS on Western
Digital and Artisoft ethernet cards. We have our data sitting on the
server in an area 'K:\LOGGER3\L3GV.DBF'.  I have my neton batch file
set up the environment variables, 'set netdrive=k:\logger3\' and also
'set lgkey=Lonnie'.

Note you may need to expand your environment size beyond the default
160 bytes by placing the following in your config.sys file.
'shell c:\command.com c:\ /e:256 /p'

I will not be held responsible for your data loss or your hardware
acting up. I am a Senior Tech Support Engineer. I created this program
(AT HOME, LATE AT NIGHT) to maintain many customer databases at work.


* * * * * * * KNOWN BUG LIST: * * * * * * *
( I thought that would get your attention.)

1) You will get a toolbox '540' error if you are running in the network
   mode and share is not loaded and resident.

2) You will get a dos error '2' when logger fails to find and open the
   data files. The set command can say you have data files in a subdir and
   you forgot to put them there.

3) If the printer is not available or on-line, logger properly detects
   that its off-line. Logger will not post a "PRINTER OFF-LINE" message
   but instead will completely ignore the printer's absence and go on
   with its business.

4) If there is no LIM 4.0 / EMS ram available, the tsr version of logger
   will make a 'SWAP' file to the root directory of the 'C:' drive only.
   But fear not. When you release the tsr, it removes the swap file.
   If you kill power and not release the tsr first, when you next power
   up, the swap file will still be there. Note the swap file's attribute
   makes it hidden from view.

5) It cannot (yet) have multible records started and multible timers timing
   at the same time. Do you (really) get three phone calls in a row then work
   on all three simultaineously? Sorry, you have to close ( if only tempor-
   arily ) the first call/log to start up the second.


I want your feedback!  Call my company BBS and drop me a note.  It's number
is [phone].  The modem is 12/24/9600 baud, eight data bits, no
parity, one stop bit.  Its open access to everybody.  The latest version of
the program will be posted there.  If you're feeling a little guilty about
not paying for the Logger programs, please (by all means) send money!
I have been slaving away (for what seems) forever on this thing.  Thank
goodness my wife is (more or less) tolerant of me sitting back here night
after night after night after night...

If you were using one of my older programs (Logger3), please note we moved
to a new building and I had to (UGGH!) get a new BBS phone number.

<relax & enjoy>

(my work) => Symbol Technologies, 340 Fischer Ave, Costa Mesa, CA. 92626
(my home) => 22612 Napoli Street, Laguna Hills, Ca. 92653

(c) Copyright 1991, Lonnie J. Rolland

dBASE and dBASE III+ was registered trademarks of Ashton Tate, Inc. {huh?}